Dev-Brain — Obsidian Vault Boilerplate for Developers

A ready-to-use Obsidian vault structure for developers, built around vibe-coding with AI agents (Antigravity, Claude Code, Cursor, etc.). Documentation is generated as a side effect of your normal coding sessions, not a separate chore.

1. Setup

Install Obsidian.
In Obsidian: Open folder as vault → select this Dev-Brain folder (or copy its contents into wherever you want your vault to live).
Settings → Files & Links:
- Default location for new notes → 00-Inbox
- New link format → Shortest path
- Automatically update internal links → ON
Settings → Community plugins → turn off Restricted mode → install:
- Templater (required — templates use its syntax)
- Dataview (required — powers Home.md)
- Git (recommended — auto-commit/push your vault)
- Homepage (optional — auto-opens Home.md on launch)
- Advanced Tables, Excalidraw (optional but useful)
Settings → Templater → set "Template folder location" to Templates.
Settings → Git:
- Set the path to your git.exe if it's not auto-detected (where git in a terminal to find it)
- Set a vault backup interval (e.g. every 10-30 min)
- Turn on "Auto push after commit" and "Pull changes before push"

In a terminal, inside this folder:

git init
git remote add origin <your-private-repo-url>
git branch -M main
git add .
git commit -m "Initial vault structure"
git push -u origin main

2. Folder structure

00-Inbox/       Quick captures, daily notes — unsorted by default
01-Projects/    One subfolder per project — contains the project note + its ADRs
02-Areas/       Ongoing recurring responsibilities (Freelance, Client Work, etc.)
03-Resources/   Reusable snippets, reference material
04-Archive/     Dead/completed projects
Attachments/    Images, files pasted into notes
Templates/      All note templates (Templater-powered)
Prompts/        The AI-agent prompts — see below

Each project lives as: 01-Projects/<ProjectName>/<ProjectName>.md plus any ADR - <decision>.md or Bug - <name>.md files for that project, all in the same subfolder.

3. Templates (in `Templates/`)

Template	Use for
Daily Note	Your day-to-day scratchpad — commands, thoughts, quick log
Project Note	One per project — overview, stack, architecture, milestones, deployment, client context, log, related links
ADR	A real architectural decision with trade-offs
Snippet	A genuinely reusable piece of code, with related-snippet links
Bug Log	A non-trivial bug — symptom, root cause, fix, links back to the ADR/bug that caused it
Meeting Note	Notes/decisions/action items from a meeting
Area	A recurring responsibility that spans multiple projects
Retro	A milestone reflection — what worked, what you'd change, time estimate vs. reality

Insert any of these via Ctrl/Cmd + P → "Templater: Insert Template".

4. The AI-agent prompts (in `Prompts/`)

These are meant to be pasted into your coding agent (Antigravity, Claude Code, etc.), not used inside Obsidian itself. Fill in VAULT_PATH (and PROJECT_NAME where required) at the top of each before running.

#	Prompt	Scope	When to use	Frequency
1	Add Project	Per project	First time adding a project — writes the base note (incl. milestones/deployment/client-work fields), ADRs, snippets, area, AND cross-links it to every other project with shared stack	Once per project
2	Vibe Coding Session	Per project	Paste at the start of every coding session — logs, ADRs, snippets, bugs (cross-linked to their cause), milestones, and offers to create a retro at real checkpoints	Every session
3	Vault Hygiene	Whole vault	Occasional pass to catch drift — renamed stacks, broken/placeholder links, manually-edited frontmatter	Monthly-ish, optional
4	Retroactive Linking Migration	Whole vault	One-time. Backfills bug↔ADR and snippet↔snippet links onto projects added before this linking existed	Once, then retire
5	Betterment Fields Migration	Whole vault	One-time. Backfills Milestones/Deployment/Client Context/dependency-check onto projects added before these fields existed	Once, then retire

Typical flow for a new project: run Prompt 1 once, from inside that project's repo. Typical flow for ongoing work: paste Prompt 2 at the start of each session, then just code. Occasionally: run Prompt 3 across the whole vault if something looks off. If you're migrating an existing vault (added projects before Prompts 4/5 existed): run Prompt 5 then Prompt 4, once each, across the whole vault. After that, every new project gets the full structure from Prompt 1 on day one — 4 and 5 have nothing left to do and can be deleted from your Prompts/ folder if you want to keep it lean.

5. Daily usage

Start your day: insert a Daily Note, jot what you're working on.
Coding sessions: use Prompt 2 — the agent logs, documents ADRs/snippets/bugs automatically.
Don't over-organize — write first, link with [[brackets]] as you naturally reference things, tidy later.
Find things via Ctrl/Shift + F (search), the Backlinks panel on any note, or Home.md (see below) — not folder browsing, not Graph View.
Weekly: skim recent Daily Notes for anything recurring that deserves its own note. Archive dead projects into 04-Archive/ (update status: archived in frontmatter).

6. Home dashboard (`Home.md`)

A Dataview-powered dashboard sitting in the vault root. Requires the Dataview plugin (Community plugins → Browse → search "Dataview" → install → enable). It auto-generates, with zero manual upkeep:

Active projects (sorted by last touched)
Projects going stale — active but untouched 30+ days
Dormant / archived projects
Recent ADRs, open bugs, snippet library, areas, recent daily notes
Projects needing a dependency check (never checked, or 90+ days stale)
Recent retros, and all projects flagged as client work
A filterable "everything using stack X" query

Open it and pin the tab, or install the community plugin Homepage to auto-open it on launch.

7. Graph View tips

Graph View is a nice-to-glance-at side effect, not a working tool. If you want it readable:

Settings (gear icon in Graph View) → Filters → "Existing files only" ON
Groups tab → color by tag: tag:#project, tag:#adr, tag:#snippet, tag:#area
Forces tab → increase Repel Force to separate clusters
Save the config as a preset (star/save icon) so it persists

8. Notes

All templates use Templater syntax (<% tp.date.now(...) %>, <% tp.file.title %>) — install the plugin or strip that syntax and fill fields manually.
.gitignore excludes Obsidian's local workspace/cache state, not your notes.
This boilerplate assumes Windows-style paths in the prompts — adjust to / for Mac/Linux.

Obsidian-Vault-Boilerplate-for-Developers